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July 7, 2016

Winter reading has cometh

A chilly Phrynekinns curious about the water on the INSIDE of the window!

Yes, my lovelies, Winter has certainly made itself known. But in case I was in doubt the negative temperatures, freezing winds and excruciatingly blue skies were a bit of a clue. On the plus side this has meant more time spent indoors - to escape the cold - snuggled up somewhere reading a book {at them moment I'm rereading the Guild Hunter series}.

In the past 4 weeks I have purchased a few items from Book Depository, but in small lots - none of those huge splurges I made last year, fun as they were.

Recently I bought two more titles from Susanna Kearsley's bibliography, The Shadowy Horses and Mariana. Enjoyed both thoroughly. While not action packed and full of adventure, they are a slow steady romance that always seems to comprise of a time travelling element. Still quick to read as I need to know what happened, but not as exciting as my Urban Fantasy books.

Also added two new (to me) authors to my shelves. Alice Thompson's The Book Collector, which sounds amazing, yet is rather on the shorter side, and Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers. I have already started this Lord Peter Wimsey mystery as Sayers was a contemporary of Agatha Christies, whose Miss Marple books I'm reading this year. Only a fraction of the way through this tiny book, but I'm cerainly getting my dose of snooty entitled upper-class attitudes with this little number.

Bought one pre-order this month, Shadow Rider by Christine Feehan. Although I enjoy the way her books are written, they are all starting to sound the same - same alpha male, same in distress female... I don't know whether or not I will continue with this new series. I'd like to read something different from her after all these years of same ol' same ol'.

Book Depository was full of good deals for me this month. Found a heavily discounted edition of Shifting Shadows by Patricia Briggs. I love the Mercy Thompson world. The books are amazing, and full of the mystery, humor and romantic moments that I love. However, this anthology of short stories was a little disappointing in that it only included one story from Mercy! Yes, just the one - and it was tiny. However, it is nice to have all the short stories from the associated series all in one bind up, so there's that at least.

Have been trying to stay away from the book section of Big W lately, but when you go through the checkout you have to pass a bin of bargain books. So, while I was waiting in line, I caved and just started looking through it. And, of course I spied a name I recognised. Sarah Pinborough. Luckily the title they had, Mayhem, looks to be the first in this series, trilogy?, and it sounded amazing, so for the princely sum of $5 it came home with me.

Oh, I did happen to win a book as well! Yes, I seem to have had a little bit of luck with IG giveaways from Allen & Unwin ;-D This is only an ARC copy of The House Between Tides, and it's now on the shelves at my local Big W, but it looks, and sounds, so interesting that it's jumped up my TBR list and I'm hoping to get to it sometime this winter.

And finally, I picked up The Fireman by Joe Hill from Big W about two weeks ago. This massive chunker of a book clocks in at 752 pages and has to be at least 2 inches thick! A monster to be sure, but I am looking forward to reading it at some point in the future.

Which leads me onto my biggest disappointment on the book front. It concerns the condition my AbeBook's items arrived in. The first two to arrive, The Stand and Misery, were in fairly good condition, some tears to the cover, and yellowing pages. However, I'd ordered the 'very good' condition copies so while I was annoyed, it was okay.

Then arrived Bag of Bones and Carrie. This was the book that started me on the quest to get the six editions of the King Classics that Hodder released in these interesting covers. Ah, Carrie... you weren't in 'very good' condition, and you reeked of cigarette smoke to boot! Seriously, my whole unit smelled of disgusting smoke for days - and nothing I tried seemed to take the pong out of it. Finally had to leave it outside for about 48 hours (sunny days and freezing nights!) but at least the smell came down to a barely detectable level. Still not impressed as I am allergic to the smoke, so I had itchy eyes, scratchy throat and a stuffed up snoot.

So, that's what's been happening in my neck of the woods on the bookish front. Making a new Book Depository order in the next few day - have my eyes on so many new stories.